A slam on a wooden table brought everyone’s attention as a map was splayed out on top of it. The captain of the ship was the first to speak up.
“Alright boys. It’s almost time. Let’s go over our infiltration.”
The captain traced his finger over a large building on the map. “This place here’s got a safe full of dough. And I mean a lot of dough. It’s important we get this done, because our ship here’s been through quite a bit and we need some repair funds. Grey Smoke isn’t gonna be too keen on helping us with empty pockets, y’hear?“ He put his hand on the shoulder of another man right next to him. “Now, Juilan here found us an interesting way to get around our little security problem.”
Julian looked a bit anxious. Considering most of this operation was riding on something he himself found, he felt some pressure on himself. However, he knew that showing hesitation was bad for the morale of the rest of the crew. So he pulled himself together and began to explain his part of the plan. He moved his finger to a spot a bit away from the building’s position on the map.
“Alright, well first, we’ll need to send out a small group to this location.”
“Well shoot, it’s pouring”
Killian finished eating at a local cafe across the Epoch Opera House when he saw the droplets fall in a cascade of thick drops. He could hear the rain coming down like one big natural cacophony. He sighed, and fished inside his shoulder bag for his umbrella so he could start his trek home.
However, the longer he dug his hand through the bag, the more he noticed that he couldn’t feel the shape of it.
“Ah crap.”
Killian then remembered that it had drizzled lightly on the way to the opera house, and took his umbrella out then. When he sat down for his show, he put the umbrella by his feet. When he walked out, it had initially stopped raining, so it never occurred to him that he left something behind.
And now it was pouring so hard that unless he wanted to wring out all his clothes when he got home, he had to go back for the umbrella.
And with that, Killian stepped out the door, braced himself, and bolted across the street back to the house.
“Damn it Damn it Damn it.”
He was doing his best to keep himself from getting wet by putting his bag above his head. The wet splashing of the street got his ankles a bit wet, but he didn’t have the time to worry about it.
Soon, he got to the house, thankfully with only some wet spots on his jacket. He asked the doorman if he could take a look inside one of the theaters for his umbrella, which the doorman thankfully complied with.
Killian stepped into the large unpopulated theater room, being greeted by the bright lights of the large area. Even though the floor was carpet, he could faintly hear the echo of his own footsteps as he walked to the aisle he originally sat at.
As he scanned the aisles, he eventually found the aisle where he sat at from a distance. Killian slowly increased the pace of his steps as he began to approach it.
Killian walked up, and only a few seats, he saw his missing black umbrella laying flat in the aisle floor.
“Well it’s good that I didn’t lose this.”
Killian walked forward and picked up the umbrella, admiring it for a second out of relief. It was still slightly wet, but it was about to get wetter soon when he took it outside.
Suddenly, the lights went out. The entire theater went dark save for the white emergency lights that lined the floor.
“Hm? That was sudden.” Killian looked across the aisles and saw the lit emergency lights. “Those only turn on if the power goes out. Well it is pretty bad outside, so wouldn’t be surprised if the steam generators got into some trouble with the weather.”
Killian was about to make a motion to turn around when he suddenly heard quick footsteps on the carpet, followed by something solid pressed against the back of his head.
“Hey bud. I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.”
Someone had approached him with his back turned to the aisle. The voice was in a deep, threatening tone. He was also able to discern that he most likely had some sort of firearm pointed at his head.
Killian spoke up. “When you say leave, do tell what that’s supposed to entail.”
The man barely missed a beat. “You’re going to leave everything you’ve got right here, and walk out the door without a word. We don’t want a mess in the middle of our gig, but we’ve gotta do what we gotta do.”
Killian sighed. Pirates. Great. He really didn’t want to deal with them. But here he was, with only a finger twitch away from his brains to get blown out.
“When you say ‘everything’, does that include my umbrella?” Killian asked in an exhausted, annoyed tone.
“Did I stutter?”
“Uuugh.” Killian was not in the mood for this. And as such, decided to free himself from the situation.
Killian thrust his umbrella backwards behind him, the handle hitting the man’s gun hand and causing it to go upwards.
“What the?!”
The impact shocked the man, and it made him pull the trigger, firing the gun into the ceiling. Killian pulled the umbrella back, turned around, closed the distance between the man, and thrust the handle of the umbrella into his face.
The strike cause the man to accidentally release the gun from his hands. Killian caught it, and briefly admired it.
“A Beretta, huh? Not a surprise guys like you carry small stuff like this around with you.” He pointed the gun at the man, who looked to be of standard height, and brown-ish hair, lit up through the emergency lights.
“Now, you want to tell me what your business is here?”
Before the now panicked man could speak, he could hear another set of soft footsteps coming from his right. He pointed the gun in that direction, while keeping an eye on the man in his peripheral vision.
“Easy now, both of you.” A man in his twenties approached Killian. “Edgar, don’t try anything, our objective isn’t to make a scene.”
The man, supposedly Edgar, nodded his head. “Uh, alright Julian.”
“Now then.” The other man, whose name was apparently Julian.”If you’re interested to know, we’re trying to get to a safe with some hi-tech security somewhere behind that stage’s walls” Julian pointed to the large stage. “Of course, we needed to briefly black out the power by messing with the generators and knocking out the guys outside. Especially that first one. Perfect weather, perfect excuse.”
Killian raised his eyebrows. “Wait, why are you even telling me this? And why haven’t I been knocked out?”
“Well for your first question, because you asked.” Julian spoke up. “And second, we just tried to, but Edgar doesn’t really specialize in that and you clearly got the upper hand.”
“Well I’ll admit to growing up with a bit of self-defense in my muscles.” Killian responded in a near deadpan tone. “So what, are you guys short on resources for once?”
“In a sense, yes. We just need some holes in our coffers filled so we can get out ship fixed...” Julians tone dropped a bit “...and be able to start getting our food back on the table again.”
Killian lowered the gun a bit. Julian didn’t even notice, including when Killian started to slowly walk over and suddenly hugged him.
“There’s nothing I can do to stop you guys, huh?” Killian spoke.
“It’s the only way; The only thing we can do.” Julian responded in a solemn voice.
Killian said nothing for a while. Then he spoke up again.
“I’ll fix this world one day. As a future member of the Ministry, I’ll make it a promise.”
Julian’s eyes widened a bit. He suddenly felt Killian let go and watched as he left with his belongings. “You’re not gonna try and stop us?”
Killian turned back and responded dryly. “It’s just me against you guys and you all cut the power. There’s nothing I can do. But I promise you that I’ll find a way to influence the world, and you won’t ever need to do this again.” With that, he walked out with the rain and light showing through the glass doors leading to outside.
Killian popped open his umbrella and started walking home in the rain, storing his new Beretta inside his bag. He traveled away from his cushy rich-life so he could understand the world more. As someone who would succeed his father one day, it was crucial that he knew the world he would have to eventually deal with. And to have experienced piracy first hand only strengthened that resolve.
“So that this doesn’t ever have to happen again, I swear it. Julian.”
And Killian walked home in the downpour, hearing the police closing in on the opera house he left.
“Alright boys. It’s almost time. Let’s go over our infiltration.”
The captain traced his finger over a large building on the map. “This place here’s got a safe full of dough. And I mean a lot of dough. It’s important we get this done, because our ship here’s been through quite a bit and we need some repair funds. Grey Smoke isn’t gonna be too keen on helping us with empty pockets, y’hear?“ He put his hand on the shoulder of another man right next to him. “Now, Juilan here found us an interesting way to get around our little security problem.”
Julian looked a bit anxious. Considering most of this operation was riding on something he himself found, he felt some pressure on himself. However, he knew that showing hesitation was bad for the morale of the rest of the crew. So he pulled himself together and began to explain his part of the plan. He moved his finger to a spot a bit away from the building’s position on the map.
“Alright, well first, we’ll need to send out a small group to this location.”
“Well shoot, it’s pouring”
Killian finished eating at a local cafe across the Epoch Opera House when he saw the droplets fall in a cascade of thick drops. He could hear the rain coming down like one big natural cacophony. He sighed, and fished inside his shoulder bag for his umbrella so he could start his trek home.
However, the longer he dug his hand through the bag, the more he noticed that he couldn’t feel the shape of it.
“Ah crap.”
Killian then remembered that it had drizzled lightly on the way to the opera house, and took his umbrella out then. When he sat down for his show, he put the umbrella by his feet. When he walked out, it had initially stopped raining, so it never occurred to him that he left something behind.
And now it was pouring so hard that unless he wanted to wring out all his clothes when he got home, he had to go back for the umbrella.
And with that, Killian stepped out the door, braced himself, and bolted across the street back to the house.
“Damn it Damn it Damn it.”
He was doing his best to keep himself from getting wet by putting his bag above his head. The wet splashing of the street got his ankles a bit wet, but he didn’t have the time to worry about it.
Soon, he got to the house, thankfully with only some wet spots on his jacket. He asked the doorman if he could take a look inside one of the theaters for his umbrella, which the doorman thankfully complied with.
Killian stepped into the large unpopulated theater room, being greeted by the bright lights of the large area. Even though the floor was carpet, he could faintly hear the echo of his own footsteps as he walked to the aisle he originally sat at.
As he scanned the aisles, he eventually found the aisle where he sat at from a distance. Killian slowly increased the pace of his steps as he began to approach it.
Killian walked up, and only a few seats, he saw his missing black umbrella laying flat in the aisle floor.
“Well it’s good that I didn’t lose this.”
Killian walked forward and picked up the umbrella, admiring it for a second out of relief. It was still slightly wet, but it was about to get wetter soon when he took it outside.
Suddenly, the lights went out. The entire theater went dark save for the white emergency lights that lined the floor.
“Hm? That was sudden.” Killian looked across the aisles and saw the lit emergency lights. “Those only turn on if the power goes out. Well it is pretty bad outside, so wouldn’t be surprised if the steam generators got into some trouble with the weather.”
Killian was about to make a motion to turn around when he suddenly heard quick footsteps on the carpet, followed by something solid pressed against the back of his head.
“Hey bud. I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.”
Someone had approached him with his back turned to the aisle. The voice was in a deep, threatening tone. He was also able to discern that he most likely had some sort of firearm pointed at his head.
Killian spoke up. “When you say leave, do tell what that’s supposed to entail.”
The man barely missed a beat. “You’re going to leave everything you’ve got right here, and walk out the door without a word. We don’t want a mess in the middle of our gig, but we’ve gotta do what we gotta do.”
Killian sighed. Pirates. Great. He really didn’t want to deal with them. But here he was, with only a finger twitch away from his brains to get blown out.
“When you say ‘everything’, does that include my umbrella?” Killian asked in an exhausted, annoyed tone.
“Did I stutter?”
“Uuugh.” Killian was not in the mood for this. And as such, decided to free himself from the situation.
Killian thrust his umbrella backwards behind him, the handle hitting the man’s gun hand and causing it to go upwards.
“What the?!”
The impact shocked the man, and it made him pull the trigger, firing the gun into the ceiling. Killian pulled the umbrella back, turned around, closed the distance between the man, and thrust the handle of the umbrella into his face.
The strike cause the man to accidentally release the gun from his hands. Killian caught it, and briefly admired it.
“A Beretta, huh? Not a surprise guys like you carry small stuff like this around with you.” He pointed the gun at the man, who looked to be of standard height, and brown-ish hair, lit up through the emergency lights.
“Now, you want to tell me what your business is here?”
Before the now panicked man could speak, he could hear another set of soft footsteps coming from his right. He pointed the gun in that direction, while keeping an eye on the man in his peripheral vision.
“Easy now, both of you.” A man in his twenties approached Killian. “Edgar, don’t try anything, our objective isn’t to make a scene.”
The man, supposedly Edgar, nodded his head. “Uh, alright Julian.”
“Now then.” The other man, whose name was apparently Julian.”If you’re interested to know, we’re trying to get to a safe with some hi-tech security somewhere behind that stage’s walls” Julian pointed to the large stage. “Of course, we needed to briefly black out the power by messing with the generators and knocking out the guys outside. Especially that first one. Perfect weather, perfect excuse.”
Killian raised his eyebrows. “Wait, why are you even telling me this? And why haven’t I been knocked out?”
“Well for your first question, because you asked.” Julian spoke up. “And second, we just tried to, but Edgar doesn’t really specialize in that and you clearly got the upper hand.”
“Well I’ll admit to growing up with a bit of self-defense in my muscles.” Killian responded in a near deadpan tone. “So what, are you guys short on resources for once?”
“In a sense, yes. We just need some holes in our coffers filled so we can get out ship fixed...” Julians tone dropped a bit “...and be able to start getting our food back on the table again.”
Killian lowered the gun a bit. Julian didn’t even notice, including when Killian started to slowly walk over and suddenly hugged him.
“There’s nothing I can do to stop you guys, huh?” Killian spoke.
“It’s the only way; The only thing we can do.” Julian responded in a solemn voice.
Killian said nothing for a while. Then he spoke up again.
“I’ll fix this world one day. As a future member of the Ministry, I’ll make it a promise.”
Julian’s eyes widened a bit. He suddenly felt Killian let go and watched as he left with his belongings. “You’re not gonna try and stop us?”
Killian turned back and responded dryly. “It’s just me against you guys and you all cut the power. There’s nothing I can do. But I promise you that I’ll find a way to influence the world, and you won’t ever need to do this again.” With that, he walked out with the rain and light showing through the glass doors leading to outside.
Killian popped open his umbrella and started walking home in the rain, storing his new Beretta inside his bag. He traveled away from his cushy rich-life so he could understand the world more. As someone who would succeed his father one day, it was crucial that he knew the world he would have to eventually deal with. And to have experienced piracy first hand only strengthened that resolve.
“So that this doesn’t ever have to happen again, I swear it. Julian.”
And Killian walked home in the downpour, hearing the police closing in on the opera house he left.